Local Intent Gets a Sharper Focus
Google has updated Performance Max store-goal campaigns so advertisers can prioritize nearby, high-intent visitors across Google Maps, Waze, and Search.
Store goals are designed for businesses that want people to visit a physical location rather than buy online. This update narrows the focus onto people who are close by and showing signs they are ready to visit, rather than spreading budget across a wider audience.
Why It Matters
For retailers, restaurants, showrooms, dealerships, and any business that relies on foot traffic, proximity is one of the strongest signals of intent. Someone searching on Maps or using Waze a short distance from your location is far more likely to walk through the door than someone researching from miles away.
Bringing Maps and Waze into the picture alongside Search also means your ads can appear at the moments people are actively navigating, which is exactly when a store visit decision gets made.
What You Should Do
If you run store-goal campaigns, review your location settings and make sure every location in your account is accurate and linked correctly to your Google Business Profiles.
Keep opening hours, addresses, and holiday hours up to date, because a nearby visitor who arrives to find you closed is worse than no visit at all. And track store visits and offline conversions where possible, so you can measure whether the sharper local focus is actually driving foot traffic. Our Performance Max specialists can set store goals up properly.
